Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Richardson

When my husband and I first looked at moving into the neighborhood, having an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in the area was one of the positive points of buying here. Unfortunately, Covid changed how everyone viewed movies, and Alamo couldn't survive. They closed all of the DFW locations recently. Thankfully someone stepped in, bought the Richardson location and recently reopened it. While we don't go to the theater very often, we felt it was necessary to get out and see a movie here soon. We want to support this company and make sure it continues to operate. You can buy your tickets in advance online and pick your seats. I personally use Fandango to this. It was really easy to see the theater configuration and pick seats accordingly. Tickets were about $15 each for a Monday night showing of a film that had been in theaters for at least a few weeks. When we entered the cinema, all I had to provide was the confirmation number to the box office (which also appeared to be the bartender?). He was kind and gave us all of the necessary information, "You are in theater 4 that it is at the end of the hall on the right. You are in row 6, and you have seats 6 and 7."Alamo has a variety of theater rooms. Some are traditional big screens that can seat lots of people. The sound is intensely loud. The leather recliner chairs have a half table that holds the menu and can swing in close so you can eat and drink without hopefully getting it all over yourself. We saw Alien Romulus on the big screen. There were only about 6-7 people in our theater. Since it wasn't packed, it was quite cool. This is a great way to escape the Texas heat for a while. The sound was loud and clear and added to the intensity of the horror. These types of movies are always best at the theater for this reason. One of the earlier shows was in a smaller theater. We originally wanted to go at 5, but we didn't want to see the show on a smaller screen...might as well stay home and watch TV for that. I love that Alamo has a bar and kitchen for providing a pre-, during, and post- hangout meal. Just know that an 18% gratuity is automatically included with your bill for the waitstaff. This means a bowl of popcorn and a large coke will run you $20. Ouch! We ate dinner before we came to avoid running up a large tab. We will definitely be back for any of the big budget action films that look amazing on the big screen.

How does paying a 28% convenience fee for buying tickets online sound to you? This was my experience a couple nights ago when we got to the end of the checkout process.I understand companies have costs to cover. That's why they are allowed to decide what services they offer and set their own prices for their goods and services. They like to say stupid things like "this helps us offset the cost of providing the convenience of buying tickets online." So where is your air conditioning fee? What about your electricity fee? Cleaning fee? How about a silverware fee?Convenience fees are a tool used by scummy companies who want to take advantage of customers with psychology tricks. "You've gotten this far into the checkout process at a certain price, selected your seats already, probably gotten your kids excited...oh, but surprise! Here's an arbitrary, surprise fee to finalize your booking."They could bake this cost into the price of the tickets just like they do every other cost. It's not about the convenience. It's about finding another way to bilk a little more money out of customers. People might say it has to do with the cost of processing a credit card transaction, but the fee is literally 10x higher than credit card processing costs.Anything else this company might say or do that is customer friendly, any good food or service they might happen to provide some people, just remember that it's all predicated on a foundation of trying to take advantage of you.Thank you for the "convenience" of allowing customers to purchase your product.

I used to love this place but the last visit was disappointing. I ordered my Diet Coke and was informed that they were out. They offered Coke Zero, which was fine. About 30 minutes later, I was told they were out of that, too. It took about an hour and 2 orders to get our popcorn. No napkins came with the popcorn. Server was not very friendly when he did show up. At one point, he set a new water in front of me. I thanked him, then he picked it up and gave it to someone sitting next to me instead. Weird. I know these are first world problems, but for the prices I paid, I expected better. I'm really hoping this was just one bad experience because I used to love this place.

This location is very clean and comfortable. The only con was as great as the service was for my neighbors it seemed almost a one star Rating for our order. It was overlooked during our entire film service, and we were even brought others orders 2x. Thankfully, the service at the bar was exceptional!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the vibe here. Nostalgic, indie, different, truly its own thing. It's more than a typical movie theater & the food is delicious. They serve generous amounts of popcorn too much to finish alone. The burger was juicy & fresh. They also curate little premovie shows based on the movie & it was funny. The theater seating is smaller than your other chains, but it makes a huge difference in service & quality. They also have a nice bar & cocktail menu.

This location is open again! I sit here right now in the theatre. New chairs are really comfortable, just wish they reclined further. Service has been top notch so far. Glad everyone was able to get their jobs back that were let go when this place closed down. For a short while they are only charging $5 per movie ticket to celebrate their reopening!!!

It's nice to take a break from our general theatre's and visit Alamo for a good meal. I love coming to this Alamo as their chefs are always consistent with great tasting food There is a nice variety of entrees to choose from, great appetizers and fun, adult milkshakes. The "Grasshopper" being my favorite! Additionally, all of the staff is friendly, from cashier, welcoming us at the front door to their servers and expeditors, all are professional, timely and courteous.The only bummer is, I got excited because I thought their "Grownup Grilled Cheese" was permanently back, it was pulled after COVID, but it's not I had one 10 days ago, only to order today, to no avail... I need their recipe, lol...If you want a good meal and a movie, come visit this Alamo, you won't be disappointed.

Here's the deal- Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has some great things going for it. If you want a more elevated movie going experience geared towards cinephiles, it's pretty good- think quote-a-longs, signature programming, brunch shows, etc...it's a fun experience. The disappointing part is the food. I've been here many times over the years and ordered different things off the menu, but there is a consistent thread here... It's too much. Too salty, too greasy, too heavy. It's junk food. This most recent time I had the queso and chips. It was bad. The chips are your standard over-salted chips. Not made in house-just chips saturated in salt and queso that's salty. I also ordered a Mexican Vanilla Shake and that too suffered from "too much". The culprit was too much cinnamon. I barely got through a quarter of the shake before I threw in the towel. There is no restraint here. No subtlety. The service though, has always been friendly.Another thing about this location is the icky smell of musty carpets. This site needs a deep cleaning. When you walk in, you can easily smell it, and it's an unappealing precursor to the greasy food. I want to love Alamo Drafthouse, but considering the food is too...everything and the smell of ick hangs in the air- I will probably still come here anyway because it's just what we've done from time to time. The movie selections are good, and I appreciate them having low tolerance for taking, texting ,etc...but this place needs an overhaul of the food and a deep clean.

I soooooooo sorry to see this franchise go. It was so unique. Yes... there's a million different theaters that serve food, popcorn and show movies. I like to think that Alamo was different. It was fun. The quality of the food was better. The popcorn was better (and I honestly judge a theater based on their popcorn!). The sound, quality, comfort, staff... it was all there. They had a bar area and a place to chill outside. I didn't do the trivia nights or the retro movie nights. But I'm sure that was fun. I regret that I didn't. Then I randomly saw a news report where the theaters were planning to close. My plan was to at least see one more movie before it shut down. The weekend finally gets here when I usually open the app to check the movie listings. The app doesn't work! I go online and find out the theaters a permanently closed. I moment of reality and sadness hit me. I missed my opportunity. All I have are the memories to look back on. I sincerely hope they're resurrected one day. In the meantime, THANK YOU for the great memories! You will be missed.

Today is a sad day ! The best food and movies This is the only theater I went to for years I'll miss this place !